India women defeated Sri Lanka women by 19 runs to bag the gold medal in the Asian Games while Sri Lanka Women had to settle for the silver.

Sri Lanka women could only score 97-8 in the chase of 117. For Sri Lanka to chase down the target, they needed a special innings from captain Chamari Attapattu but the batter was out for 12. 

Hasini Perera (25) played a couple of crisp shots and revived the chase with a 36-run partnership with Nilakshi de Silva (23) but the damage was already done.

India women won the toss and opted to bat on a sluggish pitch. Apart from Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored 46 and 42 respectively, none of the batters were able to resist the Sri Lanka batting. 

India lost Shafali Varma early but Mandhana and Rodrigues stabilised the innings with a 73-run partnership. India were going at 6 till the 15th over and was set to go berserk in the final five overs. 

However, both Mandhana and Rodrigues fell in quick succession and India suffered a huge collapse, being reduced to 116-7 in 20 overs.

This is India’s second gold in Asian games so far. Earlier, the men’s 10m air rifle team, consisting of Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Divyansh Singh Panwar, bagged gold for India.

India so far has bagged 11 medals, including 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 6 Bronze.

Meanwhile, this is Sri Lanka’s first medal in 2023 Asian Games being held in Hangzhou, China.

--Agencies